I have just discovered there is a “weather camera” on top of the Burgtheater (State Theater): http://wetter.orf.at/wien/webcam?id=568
It’s good for more than just seeing what the weather is like in Vienna!
A Friday morning in Vienna in the summer (an e-mail to my mother)
24 AugGood morning, dear!
It’s promising (threatening? ;-)) to be very hot today. Mylo and I went for our usual walk and I took my usual break on my usual tree stump in the meadow at the Narrenturm. We were having such a nice time outdoors I thought “I don’t want to go home” and decided on the spot to go to Café Weimar, dogwalking shorts and naked face notwithstanding. So Mylo and I traipsed off to Café Weimar where we sat under the awning and I had a croissant and caffè latte. As Maylo’s vet is very near there and I needed to pick up the food I had ordered for him I considered hanging around until they opened at 9:00 to save myself an extra trip. However it was only 8:15, and I thought that might be a bit too much hanging around.
Then I found myself staring at the big sign announcing the weekly open-air market of organic and (relatively) local produce at the WUK on the other side of Währinger Straße. I’ve thought about checking that out for years and never gotten around to it. They didn’t open until 9:00 either, but I decided that those two things together were worth waiting for so I pulled out a little notebook from my bag and started making notes for work on Monday and my interview on Tuesday. I was able to pull my thoughts together really well (amazing what a cup of strong coffee and nice surroundings will do for one’s concentration) and then went off and bought grapes to take to M’s party tomorrow and picked up Mylo’s food.
Just to top it all off—I texted P from Café Weimar and arranged to have dinner together this evening in Pötzleinsdorf.
I have now closed up all windows and lowered all possible blinds to stem the onslaught of the heat and am sitting here with the fan blowing on my legs.
Wishing you just such a nice day!!!
The vineyards
15 AugFor those of you who don’t know, Vienna has quite a number of vineyards within the city limits. There are historic reasons for this, dating back to the days of Maria Teresia, if I remember correctly. This means there is not only a good supply of local wine 😉 (and wine taverns–Heuriger–to sit out at in good weather) but also that there are very picturesque walks. This photo of Vienna was taken from the vineyards in Neustift am Walde in the 19th district.
MA 42 – Parks and gardens
15 AugI’m still not going to do a proper post on this “Magistratsabteilung” but I did want to give an example of their work. Someone chooses a mixture of flowers that is then planted in all the public places. This photo was taken at a traffic triangle near me. When they put these flowers in I was skeptical that they would amount to anything. Now that the plants have grown and filled in, though, I think it is a most successful combination.
This season’s choice
24 years in Vienna
1 AugI do want to commemorate my arrival 24 years ago almost to the hour, even though I’m not up to a long post.
On August 1, 1988 my mother and I flew over from London on the last Austrian Air flight of the day into a hot and steamy Vienna, were awed by the spotless, shiny marble floors in the airport (now gone, apparently, lost to the latest expansion effort), and were delighted to be met completely unexpectedly by a school friend of hers. (In those days, before Vienna with the fall of the Iron Curtain once again became the hub of central Europe, the airport busses stopped running at 10 p.m. or so.) The school friend, who with her husband over the course of my first few years became my Viennese parents, hurried us out to the parking lot and drove with great elan into the city to get us to the student residence where we were staying before they locked the doors. I remember with incredible clarity the moment she pointed out the floodlit Staatsoper on the great Ringstrasse. Spectacular.
I have just come back from a long walk in the Vienna Woods in summery temperatures followed by dinner with a few “G’spritze” (white wine spritzers) in Neuwaldegg with a friend so am off to bed. But what better way to celebrate?
Bösendorfer pianos
30 JulSomehow I had missed the news that the Bösendorfer building in the 4th district of Vienna with the beautiful concert hall, as well as production floor, was going to be torn down. Last Wednesday I picked up a copy of the free newspaper in Vienna “Heute” and what should I see on page 13 but a photo of the building already half gone and a caption that says the site would provide room for 80 new apartments. The company will go on. There is a new Bösendorfer concert hall now in the Mozart House on Domgasse, and the showrooms with practice facilities and the factory in Wiener Neustadt continue to operate, but somehow it is not the same. Apparently someone in Vienna’s Office for the Preservation of Historic Sites said that the building was a classic case for a commemorative plaque only. Even in Vienna.
Vivaldi in Vienna
28 JulThis morning I learned in the most pleasant way possible that Antonio Vivaldi died in Vienna. There is a very nice Vivaldi monument in the park around the Votiv Church.
Vivaldi Monument
This morning I noticed something that is not there every day.
Vivaldi Monument with rose
And this is a close-up of the rose …
The rose
In case you can’t read the heart-shaped tag it simply says “Antonio Vivaldi, 28 July 1741.” At first I thought the rose was to celebrate his birthday but when I got home I checked my music dictionary and found out that he was buried in Vienna on that day.
Wonderful to be remembered–and so beautifully–after well over 250 years!
More things growing in Vienna
25 JulWhether by accident or design there are squash plants growing in some concrete planters not far from the communal gardens. I was very tempted to pick the blossoms and make stuffed squash blossoms but (a) I don’t know how 😉 and (b) I’d rather see what happens with them. The photo below is at least a week old. They have grown considerably since then. (We’ve had quite a bit of rain.)
squash plants in the city
Taking care of trash in Vienna – 2
22 JulWaste or trash prevention [Müllvermeidung] has been a hot topic for years in Vienna. One of the first things I noticed 24 years ago when I arrived was that you had to pay for bags in the grocery stores. Most people brought their own and I quickly learned to, too. Stores are now required to have containers for different kinds of packaging after the checkout area, and customers have the right to unpack what they have bought right there and leave the trash in the store. No point in carrying it home and then having to separate it and dispose of it there!
A truly creative approach for preventing unnecessary waste was written up in yesterday’s Kurier*. A man named Christof Stein has had the really clever idea of buying heir-less estates and getting the public to come directly to the effects and choose what they want. He waits until he has several such estates, puts together a list of the addresses which he publishes on Facebook a few days ahead of time (www.facebook.com/RamschRosen). People who are interested pay EUR 10 for “entrance” to the apartments in question and, for that sum, can take away whatever they can carry and fit into their car. One of the photos showed two young men carrying out a (presumably working) refrigerator! And if the treasure seekers don’t find anything they want, they even get their EUR 10 back.
Even better than craigslist, I think!
* “Nachlass-Hopping: Auf Schatzsuche in alten Wohnungen”. Kurier, 21. Juli 2012.
Viennese dialect and I
21 JulFor years I have fondly been telling myself that I understand Viennese dialect. (I have even learned to say a few phrases.) This belief has been based on a certain facility to understand what is said in Hans Moser* films and has been supported by Viennese friends who speak high German with me, albeit with a Viennese accent. One thing about walking Mylo, though, is that I run into people who have no idea that I am a foreigner and who speak with me as they speak with other Viennese. And I understand, if I am lucky, about half of what they are saying! Quite a shock just before the 24th anniversary of my arrival in this city.
* A wonderful Viennese stage and film actor (1880-1964) who often played the concierge or a similar role and was famous for his melancholic demeanor and how indistinctly he spoke.
